Cage doors close on famous fugitive Jin

Jin, the celebrity otter, tries to avoid the cameras at Auckland Zoo. Picture / Sarah Ivey. Click on 'more pictures' below for a map of Jin's journey.

Like a royal reception - just off Queens Wharf in downtown Auckland - the media entourage waited patiently for the arrival of Jin, the celebrity otter.

Cameras were braced when the Department of Conservation minder announced that the fugitive was five minutes away.

At 9.30am the yellow and green DoC craft shot into view, carrying the elusive mammal that put New Zealand on the world media's radar.

And then the drop-off, a quick affair that saw a cage wrapped in a faded red mailbag handed to waiting zoo staff.

A staffer sneaked a peek and said, "that's her", before the bundle was carted up Quay St, camera crews in tow.

Onlookers could be forgiven for thinking it was baby Shiloh Jolie-Pitt.

For nearly 27 days, the adventures of the elusive otter captured the headlines and sparked a search that saw police, Navy, DoC and residents of suburbia enlisted. A television crew even chartered a helicopter to try to spot the otter from the air.

Yesterday brought closure, as the fugitive mustelid was found in a live trap at Islington Bay on the narrow strip connecting Rangitoto and Motutapu Islands.

The man who found her, DoC ranger Rodway Puleosi, was not entirely surprised. Having spotted her on Sunday afternoon following a sighting by a boatie, Mr Puleosi quickly laid traps baited with mutton from a Motutapu farm.

But Jin had proved elusive before, so nothing was certain.

Son Joachim, 7, knew better. Before Mr Puleosi went to check the traps, Joachim had a premonition.

"He said, 'Daddy, I think you got the otter'."

Once back at the zoo yesterday, Jin was sedated for medical tests.

Senior veterinarian Dr Richard Jakob-Hoff said she was in good condition, although she had lost almost a third of her weight - a result of having to forage instead of being served a daily meal. She also had minor cuts on her head, paw pads and tail, likely to have come traipsing the sharp scoria of Rangitoto.

Jin was huddled in the corner of a cage yesterday, refusing to oblige the waiting photographers.

Dr Jakob-Hoff said she would be kept in quarantine for at least a month, to ensure she recovered completely and so any necessary tests could be carried out.

Zoo director Glen Holland said Jin would not have been captured without the public's help.

"Without those individuals coming forward with sightings, DoC and the zoo would not have achieved this successful outcome."

Conservation Minister Chris Carter welcomed the news, saying "the best place for Jin is maximum security".

"She may look cute but she could have been deadly for New Zealand's wildlife," he said. "We need to be constantly vigilant when dealing with exotic wildlife in captivity."

Jin was the latest in a line of small-clawed otters to escape from zoos in New Zealand.

The most notorious was Clyde, who spent five days in an inaccessible part of the laundry in a suburban Wellington flat in June 1999 after escaping from Wellington Zoo.

He was eventually lured out with pilchards.

Clyde had already escaped from Auckland Zoo before being moved to Wellington. Repeated escape attempts later in 1999 saw him relocated to a secure zoo for "wayward animals" in Australia.

Clyde's sister Bonnie also escaped from Auckland Zoo, and his Wellington mate, also named Bonnie, tried to follow Clyde to freedom during his Wellington walkabout.

- Additional reporting by NZPA